Wednesday, June 29, 2011
…when my outside looks like this!
Yup! We FINALLY got the stuff out on the porch 🙂
And what a gorgeous day it is!! A wonderful breeze. Sunny, leaves blowing in the breeze and birds chirping.
I LOVE it!!
My only complaint…I don’t have enough time to enjoy it today 😦 Stupid work getting in the way of my enjoyment!
I’m about to go on a walk with Izzy…she’s been neglected lately.
Before and after pics of the porch to come…
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Wow, today was another wicked jam-packed day!
I can’t believe this month is just about over.
Up early again…am loving getting up early even though it sucks having to use an alarm to do it! But you can get so much done 🙂
Ate breakfast and relaxed, but then go, go, go…
*dusted the entire house
*cleaned both bathrooms
*made burritos
*lunch with a friend
*talked with my mom
*picked up my car (woo, woo! not too expensive…only $63…oil change, changed the bolts on some part that was causing that noise, and changed an oil filter)
*made pizza for dinner
*went to the library
Now relaxing. Can’t wait for a snack!
Boo for having to go back to work tomorrow!
Monday, June 27, 2011
…get outside and do some weeding!
Seriously…I was only outside for a little over an hour and I was SOAKING wet. And I only managed to get a little bit done. I did the entire area by the mailbox and then halfway up the path to the door. Weeding is a lot of hard work, but very rewarding. Now Kimm is going to spray with some Round-Up just to make sure those pesky weeds don’t come back.
I’d say I have several more days of weeding ahead of me. I did it tonight while Kimm mowed the lawn.
The rest of the day was very productive as well.
We were up by 7:30 am which is like a tiny miracle! Thank you small bladder 🙂 (we were planning on getting up at 8:30 anyways).
Went and did errands…B.J.’s (traffic was horrendous as usual), Stop and Shop (just for some coconut milk–we were running low–and a gift certificate and birthday card for a party we are going to on Saturday), the vet (all the meds for the crew), and the gas station to get gas for the lawnmower.
A brief break for lunch–fried egg sandwich, a few pop-chips (I’m not sure if I like these yet or not–had a coupon for B.J.’s), and some walnuts and raisins.
The afternoon consisted of sorting/organizing/filing for two hours. Ugh. Why do I let this stuff get ahead of me??? But thankfully I was able to clear out a bunch of stuff from out spare room 🙂 Looks so much better.
Dinner was amazing…oven toasted zucchini grinders and brown rice, with buttery apple struesel oat squares for dessert.
After a much-needed shower from getting so hot and grubby from weeding we headed to drop off my car–I need an oil change and there are two issues with my car–one, when I start my car there is this horrible screeching sound that usually lasts until I get into second gear or so, and two, when I don’t have the AC on, I have hot air coming out of my vents at all times. I’m REALLY crossing my fingers that these repairs are not too expensive!!!
And now I am FINALLY putting my feet up on the ottoman for a much deserved rest.
I need a snack and we are going to watch CSI before heading to bed.
Another busy day tomorrow.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Back to work but it was like I never left!
Of course where did I go to first?
If you guessed the ER, you would be right!
But only for four hours. Then back to ICU where we had one med/surg patient and two IMC patients. I guess people are not too critically ill right now. It made for a nice relaxing night back. I can’t say I minded.
Back to sleeping during the day…felt strange!
And now I’m relaxing again 🙂
Saturday, June 25, 2011
There was an 80% chance of rain today and instead the sun decided to show its face 🙂
We headed on over to a little ice cream place a few minutes away to grab ourselves a free ice cream–our real estate agent was having a little ice cream event (he holds different events a few times a year).
We were able to choose anything we wanted from the menu (soft serve or handmade)–we both went for the soft serve–twist!
It was SO YUMMY. I haven’t had soft serve in so long. At least a few years.
I actually ran into a nurse who works in the ER of our hospital and found out that our real estate agent helped her and her husband with their first purchase–a condo in Agawam that is LITERALLY about a minute from our place. Small world huh?
We spent at least an hour catching up with our real estate agent and his family. They are just SO NICE! We really lucked out by having him help us with our first house.
And now…
I’m heading back to work tonight 😦
Hopefully it won’t be too tough.
At least I get to have Chinese for dinner!
Friday, June 24, 2011
How can today be the last FULL day of my vacation?
It went by WAY TOO FAST.
Today I feel a bit better. I have resigned to the fact that I will have to let my cold sore heal and try to reduce the stress I am feeling so that I will heal better. I completely believe that our emotional state is so tied to our physical state. Anyways, today I upped my lysine intake–4000 mg (whereas I normally take just 500 mg daily for prevention). I took it spread out through the day…10 am, 2 pm, 6 pm and I’ll take it again at 10 pm. I read online that taking an increased dose of lysine helps to stop the virus inside the cold sore from replicating (there’s a lot more to it, but that’s the cliff notes version…I love reading about stuff like that…I know I’m a nerd!). I THINK it may be helping…at least in my eyes, the cold sore is smaller. We’ll see what it looks like tomorrow morning.
So today was pretty productive…I made these Buttery Apple Streusel Oat Squares from Oh She Glows (with just a few changes…used an egg instead of a flax egg, and used butter instead of Earth Balance, and used coconut milk instead of almond milk). The kitchen smelled like Thanksgiving 🙂
Then this afternoon we made a trip to Target to look for some stuff for the porch. And we had awesome luck! We found a deck bench to hide our recyclable containers, some cushions to go on top, a small table, and an outside rug (wicked steal…7 x 10 on clearance for only $83!–we were looking online and a 5 x 8 was close to $150). The car was stocked full on the ride home.
For the last night of vacation we got Chinese! It was AWESOME. It’s been quite a while since we had it. Vegetable fried rice, vegetable lo mein, sesame tofu, and spring rolls. Mmmmmm!!
Tonight has been all about relaxing.
Tomorrow I’m back to the grind 😦
Let me just say, I could SERIOUSLY be on vacation for a lot longer!!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
I don’t know if it was from 1) having a cold and thus a weakened immune system, 2) being extremely tired from painting, 3) having the stress of painting or a COMBINATION of all three, but today I developed a cold sore.
In about one minute.
All of a sudden I felt the place where I usually get a cold sore start to tingle and by the time I got upstairs to take a look, it was there. Not too big, and I immediately applied Abreva, but STILL.
I HATE having a cold sore.
I feel like it is just so obvious and it lasts for so long.
I am so angry.
But I’m trying to stay calm since extra stress is not good for cold sores.
My plan:
Up my lysine intake.
Keep applying Abreva.
Keep calm to lower my stress.
Get lots of sleep.
This thing better be gone before two weeks is all I have to say.
Boy, what a vacation…a cold, a cold sore, it’s raining constantly.
Ugh.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Today my mom turns 67!! Happy birthday Mom!!
I wish I could be there to give her a birthday hug and have a slice of cake 🙂
I guess I’ll have to wait until October when she visits!
In other news, I went to our hospital’s ACE day (hospital wide training on important policies–required once a year). It always feels like I was just there!
As far as the weather, it’s basically been pouring rain all day long–so glad we got the painting done yesterday. At least the garden will be happy!
I have two days left of my vacation and I’m determined to have a little fun…I see a Barnes and Noble and Target trip in my future 🙂
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
First off….Happy First Day of Summer!!
The end has come–our porch is completely painted 🙂
I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I am that it is DONE.
First task of the day…painting trim-work–around both doors and all the windows…3 and 1/2 hours (but felt like 8!)
Second task…painting the floor…1 hour.
So only a total of 4 and 1/2 hours today but still just as exhausting as the other days.
It’s amazing to see the difference, especially in the floor color…it’s always been gray and now it’s a light tan. So much better.
Can’t wait to get the new outside carpets, the furniture back in, and plants.
It’s going to be a wonderful space for us to eat and sit and relax outside.
Can’t wait!!!!
On the feeling sick front…I’m still sick…seems like slightly better than yesterday so hopefully by the time I have to go back to work I’ll be all better 🙂
Monday, June 20, 2011
What an INCREDIBLY long day.
But a lot accomplished.
Primed the walls…2 and 1/2 hours.
Painted walls and did trim-work…4 and 1/2 hours.
SEVEN long hours of painting AND a FREAKIN’ COLD (!!!!!) make for a tired and sore Kaye.
Tomorrow the plan is to finish the trim-work and paint the floor. We’re expecting rain on Wednesday so would like to finish everything tomorrow.
All I know is that I’m going to be SUPER glad when this is done.
Okay, Kaye? 